Help

Newsletter

BRUNSWICK | A deal under which culinary students from College of Coastal Georgia would have operated the former Fins by the Sea restaurant on Jekyll Island won’t happen after all.

On Tuesday, Coastal Georgia President Gregory Aloia informed Jones Hooks, executive director of the Jekyll Island Authority, that the college could not carry out an agreement made public just over a year ago under which Fins would become a teaching restaurant by fall of this year.

The college’s culinary arts program is in the middle of a five-year continuing re-accreditation process and undergoing a comprehensive review of its curriculum, Aloia said in a release.

“We deeply appreciate the Jekyll Island Authority’s willingness to work with us to partner with all the exciting developments on Jekyll Island,” Aloia said.

“We closed it last year in anticipation of this project moving forward,” Garvey said. “We were very excited about the idea and very hopeful. We were disappointed to get that news.”

Hooks said the “concept of a student-operated restaurant was met with great excitement in the community, and Skip Mounts, dean of the college’s School of Business and Public Affairs said it was an exciting opportunity for the college.

“But at this juncture, the college needs to focus on continuing accreditation efforts and curricular review. We regret not being able to take advantage of it.”

Garvey said a lot of work went into the idea with Jekyll Island staff traveling to examine how the project would work including to Rollins College which has a program similar to that envisioned for Fins.

That effort without a result is part of the disappointment, but the authority understands the cancellation of the agreement is mainly because of timing, Garvey said.

The authority staff plans to recommend to the Jekyll Island Authority board at its June meeting that a request for proposals be issued to anyone interested in operating Fins as a new oceanfront restaurant, Garvey said.

“We’re obviously in a situation where we couldn’t leave that facility closed indefinitely,” he said.

Jekyll Island is going into its busy season and needs the dining facility available for its visitors, Garvey said.